A Review of Small Gas Turbine Combustion System Development

Abstract

The EPA aircraft emission regulations were promulgated in 1973 and resulted in urgent investigations of many approaches aimed at reducing gas turbine emissions with minimum penalties to normal combustion performance. The impact of this work on small aircraft gas turbine engines is discussed, and emission reduction techniques and data are presented.Unique problems experienced with smaller gas turbine combustion systems are reviewed as are the potential difficulties of developing higher performance small combustors in the future, without the benefit of the complex and costly mechanical approaches which are applicable to the larger engines. The impact of relaxed fuel specifications and alternate-source gas turbine fuels is discussed in terms of altered fuel properties and development of fuel injection technology.